Iwo To

Iwo To, formerly known as Iwo Jima, island of Japan, largest of the three Volcano Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean. About 9 km (6 mi) long and 4 km (2 mi) wide, the island is mountainous and volcanic in origin. Mount Suribachi (161 m/ 528 ft), an extinct volcano, is the island's highest elevation. The Volcano Islands, south of the Bonin Islands, were annexed by Japan in 1891.

During World War II (1939-1945), Iwo To was the site of a Japanese air base. The island’s civilian population was evacuated in 1944 as U.S. forces battled Japan in the War of the Pacific. Japanese naval officers mistakenly referred to the island as Iwo Jima, and that is how it became known when the United States Marine Corps invaded the island in 1945 (see Iwo Jima, Battle of). Under the peace treaty signed between the Allies and Japan in 1951, the Volcano Islands were placed under the provisional administration of the U.S. Navy. They were returned to Japan in 1968 and are under the jurisdiction of Tokyo's prefectural government.

In 2007 the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute announced that it was renaming Iwo Jima as Iwo To, the name given to the island by its original Japanese inhabitants. Translated into English, Iwo To and Iwo Jima both mean Sulfur Island, a reference to the island’s sulfur mines.